Power-transmission system



July 12, 1949. H. SINCLAIR POWER TRANSMISSION SYSTEM Filed March 21, 1 947 :mn'ron Hamid! Sz'nalair Wm M Patented July 12, 1949 UNITED .iSiTATES Application March 21, 1947, Ser ialNo. 736,287

llnfireat Britain February 8, 1946 Section 1,.Public Law 690,-August 8,1946

Patent expires February 8, 1966 4 Claims.

1 The x present invention relates to power-transmission systems of theleindqembodying a hydraulic coupling 0r torque-converter 0f the kinetic type between, a driving motor and disconnecting-means which can beactuated-to interrupt engine, which it is inconvenient; tog-stopin-prder to engage and disengage the: drivegthe driven shaft ofthe system can be brought to .lfestyeitherbythe load applied to it or by brakes,- while the-motor is still running-and while the drive isengagedthe l slip in the hydraulicltransmitter being 100%. If in thesecircumstancesit is desiredto disconnect the driva the torquetransmitted by the hydraulic transmitter will be largeenough, even. if the motor is running at only idling-speed, to loadtthe r.

drive-disconnecting meansto such anextent as to preventor hinder their dise agement. .Accordingly it isusual to adoptthe arrangement described inmy Patent No. 1,978,172 whichconsists of a control memberwhich, while the driving 5 motor is running, while the disconnecting means aretnotdisengaged -and.whilethe driven part of the hydraulic transmitter (has .been arrested eitherby the load on the system or by separate braking means, can be operated toengage a part :5

of the transmission system between the ,driven element of the hydraulic transmitter ,and {the v g. element of sa dis on ect ng. means and to impart'to the said ,part abackward rotation sufficient to reducelsuitably or eliminate the l. torque loading from said disconnecting means. id tr mem rtlv usua y ba k-t r in friction brake which isloperable f rst to, eneagethe said partisothat it is usable as aclutchstop to enable'the disconn'ectingmeans to beengaged) and secondly, aftensuch engagemenhand when ,necessary to,impartto the said part the said backwardrotation.

, When a transmission system of the kind hererinbefore referred to .isused, for. example, on a road motor vehicle, the drive-disconnecting means .beingthe change speed gearing, the portion of the transmission system between, the gearing and the road wheels has appreciable torsional resilience; and, if; the yehicle is brought to rest 2 w h en in u r r ir ,an .v ast v en a e a d po t -p t syste wi 'b .fwoi r d. u by the idling drag torqile of the engine; the extent to which it is wound upgbeing the larger, the lower-the speed ratio that is engaged.

. he yerie e arie nrra ti i t d g s ed ofi he nginew ic dire a e the torsion-a1twind-upfoi the shaftasy'stem. In cons ue e if. i 1511 s mulnsienn' t is d siredto change gear or to set theggear to neutral, the said back-turning friction; brake (which usually operates on the inputshaftDf the changespeed gear) after engagement-,- has to .be rotated backwardsthrough a-substantial angle, particularly when a low-speedgear 1 is; engaged, inorder to unwind? the said portion of the transmission system and thereby. reduce suitably or eliminate t u tl d o the s arin eq ir ment involves the mov,ement of the control mechanism of the back-turnin bralce through an inconvenientlylarge travel. "Furthermore, as the angle of back turning may ,beydifferent on different applications of for example a standard change-speed gear, the control; mechanism of the bacleturning friction brake, cannot conveniently be standardised.

Fhco i of h sinventioa ov r om these difiiculties, and toreduce the'worh'donein-efieca ingthe requiredadegree of backward rotation.

V In the accompanying diagrammatic drawings,

a 1 shows h a re sementd s r be n m said Patent.No.fl',9'l8;1j2, as ap plied to a road motor vehicle,

. Fig. 2 shows toa larger scale a part of the ch i m f E emQd fi dl-in accordan i the present invention,

Fig. 3 is a section .on the.line3,- -3 infigj and F st 4 is a sect wast l c l lt line 4-4 in Rig. 2.

i eni te n rc hustio en i 1 is coupledby ayhydraulic turbo-coupling II ,to a change-speed gear box 'lZ ofthe kind, having jaw clutches or sliding-mesh geanwheels or, both;for a sth i ifi re tsree ratinst b e te The gear boxJZ,drivesalive axle l3 through a .Qardan shaft .l4 having universal joints l5 and it. Reaction ,on theaxle l3 due to driving or braking torque ,is .taken lup. by. the mainaxle, suspension springs ill... {Bhetransmissionshaft 18 between theturbo-counling I Landthe ,gear box I2 is fitted with a brakeudrjllm l 9 whichcooperates with a band?!) of albacketurning -friction brake controlledby a pedal 21.

,I areh efltte r t h za s iss p ys m ,showninljig. l is sbnqughtgto rest with the engine it running and a gear engaged in the ear box E2, the drag torque imposed on the system by the turbo-coupling II both torsionally strains the shafts of the system between the gear box [2 and the road wheels attached to the axle l3 and also causes the casing of the axle I 3 to be rocked forwards and so strain the springs I1. Thus, even though the road wheels are held fast by the vehicle brakes, the shaft I8 will have to be rocked backwards by the brake 29 through a large angle in order to enable the torque load on the gear box to be relieved, particularly if a low-speed gear is engaged, in which case not only is the torque load on the parts of the transmission behind the gear box increased, but also the angle through which the shaft l8 must be turned to unload these parts is further increased by reason of the fact that the input shaft l8 of the gear box is now constrained to rotate farther than its output shaft.

A preferred arrangement in accordance with the present invention is shown in Fig. 2 and replaces the parts l9 and 20 of Fig. 1, the improved arrangement being otherwise as shown in Fig. l.

The back-turning brake shown in Fig. 2 is of known design and provides only a small backturning angle. It includes a drum 19A fast on the shaft l8 and co-operating with a contracting band ZfiA lined with friction composition (Fig. l). One end of the band is anchored on a pin 22 fixed to a plate 23; the other end is anchored to a pin 25 on a lever 25 one end of which is pivoted on the pin 22. The plate 23 has a hub 23A rotatable on a hollow boss 26A projecting caxially with the shaft [8 from a front cover 2'5 of the gear box l2. An eyebolt 21 is pivoted to an car 28 projecting from the plate 23 and its stem passes through an eyelug 29 on the cover it. A helical spring 30 compressed between the lug 2e and a nut 31 on the bolt normally holds the plate 23 in the position shown in Fig. 4, with the head of the bolt 21 abutting against the upper surface of the lug '29.

The brake-operating mechanism includes a transverse shaft 32 mounted in a bearing 33 on the cover 26 and rigid with a forwardly-projecting lever 34 adapted to engage the under side of the projecting end of the lever 25. A forwardly-projecting lever 35 fixed to the shalt 32 is connected by a link 36 to one arm of a bellcrank lever 31 mounted on a fixed pivot 38. The other arm of the bell-crank lever 31 is connected by a link 39 to one end of a diiferential lever 40. The pedal 2! is rigid with a lever 41 which is connected by a link 42 to a point on the lever 46 between its ends.

The output shaft 43 of the gear box is provided with a simple brake of conventional type having a drum 44 (Figs. 2 and 3) fast on the shaft 63 and co-operating with a pair of shoes 45 pivoted on a pin 46 fast in an anchorage bracket 4?. A tension spring 43 normally keeps the shoes out of contact with the drum, and they can be moved apart to engage the drum by a cam 49 fast on a cam-shaft 50 rotatable in the bracket 61. A lever fast on the cam-shaft 50 is connected by a link 52 to one arm of a bell-crank lever 53 carried by a fixed pivot 54. The other arm of the lever 53 is connected by a link 55 to the end of the difierential lever 40 opposite to that to which the link 33 is connected.

In Fig. 2 the gear box I2 is partly in section to show, by way of example, a jaw clutch providing direct drive. A dog, 56 splined to the output shaft 43 has clutch teeth 51 engageable with clutch teeth 58 on the input shaft l8. If the vehicle is brought to rest by the ordinary roadwheel brakes while the engine It] is running and while the clutch 51 and 58 (or any other slidingmesh teeth in the gear box) are engaged together, the drag torque transmitted by the turbocoupling I! will be large enough to hinder or prevent disengagement of the engaged teeth, e. g. in order to set the gear box to neutral or to engage another gear.

If now the pedal 2! is depressed, the brakeoperating mechanism first acts to spread the shoes 45 of the simple brake into engagement with the drum M and also to raise the lever 25 of the back-turning brake and thereby contact the band. 20A into engagement with the drum 19A. On continued depression of the pedal, since the band 20A is noW fully contracted, the lever 25 cannot be raised farther relatively to the plate 23, and consequently the plate 23 and all the parts carried by it, together with the drum ISA, are caused to rotate backwards, i. e. in the direction opposite to that denoted by the arrow in Fig. 4, through a small angle, so that the spring 36 is further compressed. Since the shaft 43 is held stationary by the simple brake, a very small angular displacement of the shaft [8 by the backturning brake is sufficient to unload the engaged teeth. The initial loading of the springs 30 and 48 is such that the plate 23 will not begin to turn backwards until the simple brake has been applied strongly enough to prevent any slipping of the drum 44 as the torque through the gear box is relieved.

The simple brake is exposed to very little wear: it is required to slip only after the disconnecting means have been disconnected, under the unwinding action of the torsionally resilient part of the transmission system as the brake is released. In consequence the simple brake may be arranged to have a very small clearance and to operate at an abnormally high specific contact pressure so that conveniently little work is required to engage it. A change-speed gearing, suitable for use, for example, in road motor vehicles as the drive disconnecting means of the improved transmission system, can therefore be provided with the said two brakes, co-operating with its input and output shafts respectively, toether with the common control means for these brakes and any necessary inter-locking mechanism, all as a standard product, and suitable for use without modification on different vehicles where different degrees of transmission wind-up have to be catered for.

I claim:

1. A power-transmission system embodying a hydraulic power transmitter of the kinetic type between a driving motor and disconnecting means Which can be actuated to interrupt the drive and which resist disengagement under torque load, the hydraulic transmitter being of the type which does not completely interrupt the transmission of torque, the system also embodying a control member operable to engage a part of the transmission system between the hydraulic transmitter and the drive-disconnecting means, a control member operable to engage a part of the transmission system which is on the driven side of said disconnecting means and which is drivably connected to said disconnecting means by at least one element having no substantial torsional resilience, and an actuating member operable for imparting to at least one of thesaid two control members, after they have been engaged with the system, a relative rotation with respect to each other in such a direction as to at least suitably reduce the driving torque loading on said connecting means.

2. A power-transmission system embodying a hydraulic power transmitter of the kinetic type between a driving motor and disconnecting means which can be actuated to interrupt the drive and which resist disengagement under torque load, the hydraulic transmitter being of the type which does not completely interrupt the transmission of torque, the system also embodying a back-turning friction brake engageable with a part of the transmission system between the hydraulic transmitter and the drive disconnecting means, a simple brake engageable with a part of the transmission system which is on the driven side of said disconnecting means and. which is drivably connected to said disconnecting means by at least one element having no substantial torsional resilience, and an actuating member common to the said two brakes and operable firstly to engage both of said brakes and thereafter to impart a backward rotation to said back-turning brake.

3. A power-transmission system embodying a hydraulic power transmitter of the kinetic type between a driving motor and disconnecting means which can be actuated to interrupt the drive and which resist disengagement under torque load, the hydraulic transmitter being of the type which does not completely interrupt the transmission of torque, the system also embodying a back-turning friction brake engageable with a part of the transmission system between the hydraulic transmitter and the drive disconnecting means, a simple brake engageable with a part of the transmission system which is on the driven side of said disconnecting means and which is drivably connected to said disconnecting means by at least one element having no substantial torsional resilience, and an actuating member operatively connected to the said two brakes by a differential mechanism so that, when both of said brakes are engaged, further movement of the actuating member imparts backward rotation to said back-turning brake.

4. A power-transmission system for an automotive vehicle and including, connected in the order named between an internal-combustion motor and running wheels of the vehicle, a hydraulic power transmitter of the kinetic type, a change-speed gearing having an input shaft and an output shaft and gear-selecting means which resist disengagement when under torque load, and at least one transmission element having appreciable torsional resilience, the system also including a back-turning friction brake associated with said input shaft, characterised by a simple brake associated with said output shaft, and a common actuating member operable first to engage both of said brakes and thereafter to impart backward rotation to said back-turning brake.

HAROLD SINCLAIR.

REFERENCES CITED The following referenices are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,403,819 Stowers et a1. Jan. 17, 1922 2,309,051 Dodge Jan. 19, 1943 2,373,234 Dufiield Apr. 10, 1945 2,410,333 Barkeij Oct. 29, 1946 

